Springer has acquired the three pioneering 'living' open access journals: Living Reviews in Relativity (impact factor 19.25), Living Reviews in Solar Physics (impact factor 17.64) and the recently launched journal Living Reviews in Computational Astrophysics from the Max Planck Society. Furthermore, Springer has acquired the domain names livingreviews.org and livingreviews.eu, all registered Living Reviews trademarks, as well as the journals' wordmarks and logos.

With the first Living Reviews in 1998, the Max Planck Society launched an innovative model for scientific publications. The development of the Living Reviews journal is based on a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and the Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management, the precursor organization of the Max Planck Digital Library. The unique concept at the heart of the Living Reviews is that authors can update the content as needed. The texts remain 'living' and, unlike conventional survey articles, won't inevitably become outdated. The Living Reviews will complement Springer's open access journal portfolio and other 'living' publications like the Live References.

"These journals fit perfectly into our physics and astronomy portfolio. For each of the three Living Reviews journals, we have a sister journal publishing mainly original research papers. Thanks to their outstanding impact factors, the new additions from the Max Planck Society provide a valuable contribution to our journals program," explains Ramon Khanna, Senior Publishing Editor Physics and Astronomy at Springer. "Together with our existing physics and astronomy journals, which include leading review journals such as The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review with an impact factor of 17.74, Springer can now offer our authors a wider choice of comprehensive and high-caliber gold open access and hybrid journals."

Bruce Allen, Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, explains, "The journals will remain open access and their new home is a major academic publisher. This is an important step to ensure that the journals profit from new developments in the publishing world and enjoy long-term success." The Max Planck Society will also continue to be involved in the journals, making suggestions concerning the makeup of their editorial boards.

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About the journals:

Living Reviews in Relativity, launched in 1998, has an impact factor of approximately 19.25. The journal, published to date by the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), has held the number one slot in the international ranking of scientific journals in the category "Physics, Particles and Fields" for the past several years. The peer-reviewed articles provide critical overviews of the current state of research in all areas of general relativity theory. The open access journal has become a valuable tool for the scientific community and is one of the first places a researcher looks to for information about current work in relativity.

Living Reviews in Solar Physics was founded under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in 2004 and has an impact factor of approximately 17.64. The journal publishes freely available reviews of research in all areas of solar and heliospheric physics.

Living Reviews in Computational Astrophysics was launched by the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in 2014. The peer-reviewed online journal publishes freely available reviews of research in all areas of computational astrophysics.

All three open access journals are published online only, and all research reviews can be read by anyone. Graduate students can use the journals to start their initial literature surveys or to learn about fields peripheral to their own. Researchers can use them to quickly find the latest results in fields in which they are no longer up to date, to track down bibliographic references that they have not recorded, or even to find new areas with interesting interdisciplinary connections to their own in which their own skills can be applied. Lecturers can use them to find information and visual materials that can be used in presentations at all levels.

The Max Planck Society (MPG) is Germany's leading research organization. In 83 Max Planck facilities, more than 5,500 scientists and over 7,600 graduate students, undergraduates, student assistants, and visiting scientists conduct basic research in the natural sciences, life sciences and humanities. The Max Planck Society was founded in 1948 as a successor to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society which was established in 1911. Since then, 18 Nobel laureates have emerged from its ranks. The institutes are of international repute and attract top researchers from around the world. In addition to five foreign institutions, the MPG operates another 14 Max Planck Centers with research institutions such as Princeton University in the USA, Science Po in France, the University College London in UK, and the University of Tokyo in Japan. Equally funded by federal and state governments, the Max Planck Society has an annual budget of 1.6 billion euros.

Springer Science+Business Media is a leading global scientific, technical and medical publisher, providing researchers in academia, scientific institutions and corporate R&D departments with quality content via innovative information products and services. Springer is also a trusted local-language publisher in Europe - especially in Germany and the Netherlands - primarily for physicians and professionals working in healthcare and road safety education. Springer published roughly 2,400 English-language journals and more than 9,000 new books in 2014, and the group is home to the world's largest STM eBook collection, as well as the most comprehensive portfolio of open access journals. In 2014, Springer Science + Business Media generated sales of approximately EUR 959 million. The group employs more than 8,500 individuals across the globe.

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